Next scene shows a flashback of a younger Eugene brutally killing a guy with a tin can in his hand. It seems they were inside a grocery store and the can was what came in handy in killing about four or five men that we see sprawled all over the floor. Then the scene reverts back to the present (a bit confusing, at first but you would soon realize that the flashback scenes are a bit misted and hazy so you can easily distinguish them from the present) and the group of Glenn, Maggie, Tara, Rosita, Eugene, and Abraham are slowly getting up and saw the bus was burning so they need to get out and fight walkers waiting for them outside. Tara covers Eugene and provides him with a bladed weapon before they step out of the bus telling him that now is the time to be brave. When they got off the bus, Eugene sees everyone busy battling walkers and when he sees one going after Tara, he bravely sticks his knife at the back of its neck – finally he was able to kill one!
When the group finished battling the walkers who came upon them, they get into an argument over whether they should continue with the journey to D.C. or head on back to the church. But Abraham insisted that they need to move forward, saying they can’t turn back and so they did not despite Eugene’s appeal that the church was just 15 miles back. The group start walking ...meantime, another flashback and Abraham is seen shouting/looking for a woman named Ellen, probably his wife. He finds her at the back of the store, huddled behind a cash counter obviously frightened with some children (maybe their kids?)
Then, the scene reverts back to the present and the group is seen entering what seems to be a book store or a library as their shelter for the night. Tara gets water from a toilet and boil it with a makeshift fire using some of the library’s books for fuel while someone distractedly hums in the background...I wonder whose voice it was (Abe’s maybe?) Then Rosita, bandages up Abraham’s wounds and afterwards declares he would be making one final sweep of the area. He chanced upon Glenn who was looking out a window and the entire scene was done almost in darkness (I guess they don’t have electricity anymore?) He thanks Glenn for believing in him, that they have a chance to save the world. The two say their goodnights then and Abe heads off to sleep with Rosita while Glenn stays on as first watch.
Next scene shows Abraham and Rosita making love and they make fun over the fact that Eugene is watching them again (so they knew it was not the first time) she also says he was in the ‘Self-help’ section, an obvious pun and reference to the episode’s title. Then, Tara came and catches him watching them...and justifies that he enjoys watching the female form. Tara tells him instead that she was looking for him to say thank you, for saving her life back at the bus. Eugene tried to downplay the incident but Tara insist that he can do it – be brave and save others not just himself. But Eugene, obviously torn by guilt admitted to Tara that he purposely rigged the bus to crash so it would slow their progress to D.C. He admits that he fears he is only valued because of his capability to cure the disease but Tara insists that it was not how they view him, or anyone in Rick’s group for that matter. They protect each other because that’s what friends do, that’s how things between them work. Tara agreed to protect his secret but they had to move on.
Glenn sleeps beside Maggie and Maggie tells him about feeling guilty, leaving their friends behind at the church. But Glenn justifies they need to stay positive as their mission will change everything. Flashback again to Abraham who confronts his wife, telling her he they are safe now, that he stopped them, they do not need to be scared anymore. But the wife and kids seem deathly afraid of him, cowering in fear and looking at him like he is some sort of a monster. At the present time, Rosita looks at his wounds and they seem to be healing well. She suggests that they stay on for another day at the library so they could rest more and recover strength for their mission but Abe gets angry at her. Maggie walks in and says the same thing so Rosita flips and choose to side with Abraham. They need to keep going and in fact they already have a vehicle with fresh water available – a firetruck just outside their window.
The group proceed to check out the truck and luckily it starts! But moments later as they pull out the engine suddenly shuts down then a tire rolls out from the open fire station door and soon more walkers come out and the group once again start smashing heads and slicing necks. Then, Eugene gets up on the firetruck and hoses down the rotting walkers with water so that they are cut in half and can’t move to kill them. (that’s a whole lot of water wasted but I guess it made some plus points for Eugene) Then, another flashback scene with Abraham waking up to find his wife and kids gone and a note left in the cash register, ‘Dont try to find us’.
Back to present, and the group is on the road again but the firetruck broke down once again. Abraham is trying to fix it, humming once again (so I guess it was him humming last night) while Eugene is reading a book at the back of the truck. Maggie comes over to talk to him, telling him that ‘you’re not the person people think you are.’ Maggie thinks he may actually be a survivor but he lets others believe otherwise. Their chat is interrupted by a stench that they smell and as they walked on down the road they soon realize where it was coming from – thousands of walkers on the road and in the farm fields ahead. Glenn advised that they take a detour but still Abraham won’t have it. Rosita refused to stand by him and sided with everyone else. Abraham grabs Eugene and walks off with him. The group rushes in to stop him with Glenn almost getting into a lopsided fistfight with the gigantic Abraham Ford until Eugene finally breaks, shouting that he’s not a scientist!...That he does not know how to stop it...that he lied about everything.
The group could not believe it... he says he was just smarter than most people and that he just felt the need to go to D.C. where the chances of survival are higher. Rosita pointed out that many people died trying to get him to D.C. He admits being a coward and tried to slow the group down at first but as they came closer he suddenly became fearful and knew he must now tell the truth as he was already screwed either way. He continues to explain himself but Abraham cuts him short by punching him repeatedly in the face. Eugene falls to the ground and as the group try to save him, Rosita puts himself between Abraham and Eugene to prevent him from inflicting more damage. Abraham heads a little further on the road, falls on his knees and sobs.
Another flashback episode is shown with Abraham trying to find his wife and kids and finding them out on a road, killed by walkers. He is devastated and shown kneeling once again this time in an attempt to end his own life. As he was about to shoot himself with his own gun, Eugene comes running screaming for help. Abraham stands up, takes down the walkers and walks off. Eugene follows him to thank him, and to tell him that he can’t leave since he has a very important mission. So I guess, in a sense, it was Eugene who gave him the reason to continue living. This episode shows us that Abe’s temper and violent ways were the reasons his family stayed away from him... this is the same reason provided for in the comics but what was not clear in this episode was the reason why he killed those men in the grocery store. Actually, in the comics (Issue 58), it was because those men raped his wife, I guess, they did not want to include again another issue of rape in the TWD TV series...so unlike in the comics where even Michonne was raped by the Governor when she was captured.
This ‘Self help’ episode actually tells the viewers how low people would go to ‘help themselves’ to survive – whether by eating the flesh of fellow humans, or allowing other cops to rape women just to keep them on a leash, or joining a band of thugs like the Governor, or turning away your own flock to save your own skin, or lying/making up a story about knowing how to save the world in order to manipulate others to protect you. In the comic (Issue 67) Eugene was discovered by Rick himself when he found the walkie talkie without batteries and he made Eugene finally confess that he was not really a scientist but a high school science teacher. It was also in this same issue whe the group meets Aaron, the guy who would be introducing them to another community just like Woodbury but this time headed by an old man...I am not sure if they will be using these loop also in the TV series. I just wonder what happens to Abraham now that he has lost his reason to live...or to Eugene for that matter, is he dead from Abe’s beating? But I don’t think we’d find out soon as next week’s episode seems to be about Carol and Daryl – well, at least one cliff-hanger question left in Episode 3 will be answered...who was with Daryl in the bushes at the church.
(photo grabbed from AMC)
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